Motif DA·M·0001
The family vampire
The family as a vehicle for contagion: the dead return to those they loved, and affection becomes the channel through which evil spreads.
Folklore
In eighteenth-century reports, the first victims of alleged vampires are almost always relatives and neighbours◆ Primary sourceAn original document consulted directly: a text, record, script or film print.Source: Visum et Repertum, 1732. Scholars also read this as an epidemiological pattern: deaths occur in succession within the same household.
Literature
In La famiglia del Vurdalak, this observation becomes a moral rule: the Vurdalak seeks out those it loves most.
Cinema
I tre volti della paura turns it into a structure: each family member who is infected prolongs the patriarch’s authority¶ Editorial interpretationAn editorial reading, identified explicitly as interpretation..
- 1732 History
In Serbian cases, alleged vampires attack relatives and neighbours
PRIM: Primary source - 1884 Literature
Tolstoy makes family contagion the story’s central idea
DOC: Documented - 1963 Cinema
Gorca calls his family to him in I tre volti della paura
DOC: Documented
Connections
7 direct connections · 34 further links. Dashed lines indicate weak or unproven links.
- Film
- Creature · ritual
- Motif
- Source
- Person
- Weak link
Creatures (3)
Films (3)
Black Sabbath
I tre volti della paura · Les Trois Visages de la peur
Night of the Devils
Night of the Devils
Night of the Devils
Night of the Devils
Motifs (2)
The vampire child
The vampire child
Sources (2)
Visum et Repertum
La famiglia del Vurdalak
- The Vurdalak, from folklore to cinema bloodline · via Vurdalak
- Vampires of Eastern Europe collection · via Vurdalak
- Strigoi creature · via Vurdalak
- Revenant creature · via Vurdalak
- La Guzla source · via Vurdalak
- Eastern Europe place · via Vurdalak
- Sem’ja vurdalakov film · via Vurdalak
- Boris Karloff person · via Vurdalak
- A. K. Tolstoy person · via Vurdalak
- Mario Bava person · via Black Sabbath
- American International Pictures person · via Black Sabbath
- Anton Chekhov person · via Black Sabbath
- Guy de Maupassant person · via Black Sabbath
- Theft from the dead motif · via Black Sabbath
- The threatening telephone motif · via Black Sabbath
- The sound that announces the supernatural motif · via Black Sabbath
- The threshold and invitation belief or ritual · via Black Sabbath
- Italian Gothic collection · via Black Sabbath
- Dubbing glossary · via Black Sabbath
- Censorship glossary · via Black Sabbath
- Alternate cut glossary · via Black Sabbath
- Literary adaptation glossary · via Black Sabbath
- I tre volti della paura vs Black Sabbath version · via Black Sabbath
- Rome place · via Black Sabbath
- Black Sunday film · via Black Sabbath
- Black Sabbath (band) person · via Black Sabbath
- The Chekhov credit: a source that cannot be found journal · via Black Sabbath
- Why Dread Atlas begins with I tre volti della paura journal · via Black Sabbath
- Kisiljevo place · via Vampire
- Medveđa place · via Vampire
- Protections against the dead belief or ritual · via Vampire
- The Vampyre (Polidori, 1819) source · via Vampire
- Dracula (Stoker, 1897) source · via Vampire
- Vienna place · via La famiglia del Vurdalak
Revision history
- First draft.— Editorial team
How to cite this page
Redazione Dread Atlas, «The family vampire», Dread Atlas, Entry DA·M·0001, updated 18 September 2026. https://macabralia.com/en/motifs/vampiro-familiare/